Reputed mob associate, cattle rancher to be sentenced

A
reputed New England mob associate who lived as a cattle rancher in Idaho under
an alias for more than a decade before he was caught and convicted of several
crimes should spend 40 years in prison, federal prosecutors said in a
sentencing recommendation.

Enrico
Ponzo, 45, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston
after his conviction in November on a string of federal charges, including the
attempted murder of a man who became the boss of the New England Mafia.

Ponzo
was an active participant in the violent Mafia power struggles during the 1980s
and 1990s, prosecutors said.

“The
reign of terror imposed on the city of Boston by Ponzo, his confederates, and
their enemies during the shooting war impacted the lives of everyone who lived
here,” and was motivated by greed for status, power and money, prosecutors
wrote, according to The Boston Globe.

They
described Ponzo as a “vicious, violent, cold-blooded criminal.”

Ponzo,
representing himself, requested a sentence of 15 years or fewer. He said he
lived a “hardworking, selfless life in Idaho from 2000 through 2011 as a
stay-at-home dad, cattle rancher, and elected community volunteer.”

A
jury found Ponzo responsible for the attempted murder in June 1989 of Francis
“Cadillac Frank” Salemme, who was shot by masked men outside a suburban Boston
pancake house. Salemme survived and later became head of the New England mob.
Ponzo was acquitted of some charges, including two killings and four other
attempted murders.

Ponzo
fled Boston to Arizona in 1994 and wasn’t captured until 2011, when authorities
found him in Marsing, Idaho, where he ran a small ranch and used an alias.